stunning blow on the temple with his clenched fist.

The officer, strong though he was, went down unconscious.

"Run! Run! Follow me!" exclaimed the young man. "They'll think you were
my comrade and it may mean your death!"

His action had been so violent, and he spoke with such vehemence that
John was mentally overborne. Driven by a powerful impulse he followed
the flying man.

Kempner, for so John still called him, darted into a narrow street not
wider than an alley, leading between two low houses. He had had no
opportunity hitherto to observe the border place in which they had
stopped. It was small, but like many of the old European towns it was
very closely built, and some of its streets were scarcely wide enough
for two abreast.

The fugitives ran swiftly. Kempner evidently knew the place, as he
sprang in and out with amazing agility, and the sounds of pursuit died
in a minute or two. Then he darted between two buildings that almost
touched, entered a small churchyard in the rear of a Gothic church and
threw himself down behind a great tombstone. And even as he did so he
pulled John down beside him.

As they lay close, still trembling from exertion and excitement, Kempner
said to John, and now he spoke in perfect French:

"Since I got you into this trouble I think it my duty to get you out of
it again if I can. Of course the people of the town saw us running, and
I rushed through that narrow passage in order to evade their sight."

His tone had a dry and quaint touch of humor and John, despite his
exhaustion and alarm, could not keep from replying in a similar vein.

"If I don't owe you thanks for the first statement I do at least for the
second. I don't know German, and so I couldn't understand what you and
that Austrian officer said, but I fancy your name is not Kempner."

"No. It's not, and I'm not an Austrian. I'm a Frenchman, for which I
return thanks to the good God. Not that Americans are not great and
noble people, but it's a fortunate thing that so many of us are
satisfied with our birth."

"I was thinking so when you announced with such pride that you were a
Frenchman."

The other laughed softly.

"A fair hit," he said, "and I laid myself open to it."

"Now since you're not August William Kempner, and are not an Austrian,
will you kindly tell me your name and your nation, as in any event I am
no enemy of yours and will betray you to nobody."

"My race, as you might infer from the beauty